The Happy Hollows’ guiding genius was as wound-up giddy as ever, leading the veteran art-rock trio through a set of mostly new songs that I’m glad to report are as warm and wobbly as their entire output from 2006’s Bunnies and Bombs EP to date. She’s turned into something of a guitar wizard in the past few months, fingertapping expertly and looking momentarily nonplussed when a string broke. “I think I’m handling this crisis well,” she giggled, while tuning up trusty guitar # 2 for its public debut.

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After school tutoring program 826LA asked its students to write songs and then brought in local bands to sing and record them. On March 6th, 826LA is hosting a release party at the Echo for the Chickens in Love album written by its students and performed by She & Him, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic [...]

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Enough votes will get Happy Hollows’ new video “Death to Vivek Kemp” into regular rotation on MTVu! Watch the video and vote here (voting ends Friday): http://www.mtvu.com/music/the-freshmen/nominees-020110/

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Stream: The Happy Hollows “Silver” [Audio clip: view full post to listen] (from Spells available now from Autumntone Records) The Happy Hollows’ debut album, Spells, was just put out on Autumntone Records. L.A. RECORD reviewed the self-released album back in September, and spoke to Sarah and Charles about the fruit fly theory of GDP growth.

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Throughout the entire show, Sarah never showed a sign of tiring, throwing her head up and down, bouncing and jumping around the stage. Charlie and Chris possessed their own endless amounts of energy—not once did any of the three ever stop playing music to drink water, stall to relax or maybe even breathe. To be honest, it is hard to focus on all the logistics and technicalities of the music because watching the band play is so enamoring.

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During the fourth or fifth song, I watched a guy who had been bobbing to the music turn to his friend and say, “This is a good one!” Reality became heavy for him and he stopped moving, closed his eyes, his hands stayed where they were for almost two minutes. He came back to life long enough to mouth the words, “They remind me of Helmet. You remember Helmet?” He blacked out again in slow motion, not drunk, but zoned in. I wondered if he was imagining Heisenflei’s bra.

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The Happy Hollows fills my hollow with happiness.—Do you really think of your body as being solid? Maybe this comes from playing with dolls, but it’s often very strange to really believe there are things inside me. Not to mention worms and spiders. Anyway…

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Widow Babies’ bassist Neal laid his instrument to rest after Saturday night’s show at the Smell. The word on the street is that Neal will be attending Columbia University this fall—starting Monday, actually—and for that reason he couldn’t play the Spaceland show. Despite this shortcoming, the band played on: Elise gave a lively vocal performance that sounded like a child singing to their favorite song while Danny kept his guitar sounding surfy and Tabor built complex beats out of simple rudiments. Even without a bassist, the Widow Babies ensnared the listeners with style and beauty.

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It was so strange to see Julian in Silverlake. To me, the Strokes were better suited as a small-venue band because when they played in large arenas, the group looked like little action figures on a stage. This we could chalk up to fame and stardom. But at Spaceland, we could see the man face to face. In the hallway, after informing the singer I was writing a review of the show, he admitted he’d be a little reluctant to read it in a few days due to what seemed to be a fear of bad press.

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Negahdari embodied a homecoming queen—her chest resplendent with glitter. She’d choke up on the mic thanking the audience with I love YOU ALL’s. She flailed and screeched while Charlie Mahoney’s fingers wove spider webs around his bass strings. Before the rhythm and before the melody came the sound’s impact. Like a bully’s push it was. The Happy Hollows’ first crunch made my skin shake. The songs loudly proceeded, carving a funnel of love and slipped along its smooth slope to fun house heaven.

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